Turkish authorities ban Lars von Trier’s ‘Nymphomaniac’

Lars von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac,” which was scheduled to hit Turkish cinemas on March 14, has been banned by Turkey’s national cinema board.

The controversial two-part drama about a woman’s erotic journey from birth to the age of 50 was screened at the !f Istanbul Independent Film Festival last month. At the festival, a version of the film censored by von Trier himself was shown, following the uncensored world premiere at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 6. The film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Martin Solibakke, Shia LaBeouf, Jamie Bell, Christian Slater and Connie Nielsen.

Turkey’s Ratings Committee initially failed to reach a decision at the subcommittee level about whether an uncut version of the movie could be screened in Turkish theaters under a national distribution deal. However, a majority of the higher committee subsequently decided that the film must not be screened, even with a “+18” certificate.
The Ratings Committee consists of representatives from the Culture Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Education Ministry, as well as members of cinema associations, a psychologist, a sociologist and a pediatrician. Two members of the committee attached an annotation to the decision to declare that they did not agree with it.

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